“After slaughtering at least 50 Christians in one area of Plateau State, Nigeria in April, Fulani herdsmen this week killed five more in the same county,” reports Morning Star News.
They are among at least 150 Christians killed in Plateau State in 2025. About five million of Nigeria’s 230 million people live in Plateau State. Most residents of Plateau State are Christian. But Nigeria as a whole is about 55% Muslim and 45% Christian.
On June 4, Fulani herdsmen killed two Christians in the village of Nkienwhie in Plateau State’s Bassa County.
On June 3, three Christians were killed in Kwall, another village in Bassa County, when they were ambushed and attacked by Fulani herdsmen. They were first shot and then attacked with machetes. Among the slain Christians were Sunday Ishaya, age 37, and Joshua Mishi, age 51. Last month, six Christians were shot and wounded in the same area.
In April, Fulani herdsmen killed 50 Christians in a single attack in Zike Kimakpa, a predominantly Christian village.
An area youth leader says that Christians “have been the continuous target of Fulani militias for over two decades,” with “thousands displaced, and destruction of an unquantifiable number of properties and farm crops.” He called on international organizations and the International Criminal Court to demand justice for Christians facing persecution in Plateau State.
Last week, Fulani militias attacked Kpachudu village, shooting and wounding a Christian villager, Ishaya Achi.
On May 14, herdsmen destroyed many acres of crops of Christian farmers in the village of Ngbrrakunvu. “This violent act has resulted in the destruction of nearly 100 farmsteads, covering over 40 hectares of cultivated land. This heinous act is not an isolated incident but rather a recurring pattern of aggression and lawlessness that has plagued Christians and for years, particularly during farming seasons,” a local leader says.
On the afternoon of May 14, Fulani herders attacked two Christian women at Rikwe-Rishe village as they worked on their farm. Four days earlier, Fulani militias attacked the village of Kigam and killed two Christians, including Daniel Bawa, 45, who was killed as he worked on his farm.
On the same day, Fulani herders attacked Christians in their homes in the village of Zanwra and wounded two brothers, Mworina Barry and Iliya Zami Barry.
On Wednesday, herdsmen also attacked villages such as Jol in Riyom County, where they had killed at least 18 Christians in May.
“Please pray for my village, Jol in Riyom Local Government Area,” said a villager in a text message. “An attack by Fulani herdsmen is ongoing there.”
Another resident confirmed that armed herdsmen were mounting yet another attack on the village of Rim in broad daylight. “This attack highlights the horror, the pressure, the fear Christians are forced live with every single day,” she said.
Prior to the Jol attack, herdsmen attacked the village of Bachi on June 1. Morning Star News reports that “In mid-May in Wereng, 12 Christians were killed in a herdsmen attack, and four others were slain in Chido village.”
“At Wereng, a Christian community in Riyom, we have four Christians who were killed on Tuesday, 13 May,” a resident said. “The Fulani are the ones who killed them. They killed eight Christians, while one other Christian was injured. On 14 May, the Fulani herdsmen returned to attack the community again, killing eight Christians, and burned down their houses.”
Attorney Solomon Dalyop says the roughly 200 armed Fulani who attacked Wereng and Chido villages also destroyed many homes.
Another band of herdsmen on May 13 killed two Christian villagers in an ambush, said an area woman, Pam Dung.
“Two Christian villagers, Linus Davou and Tunde Daylop, were ambushed and killed by herdsmen at the Dachidom community at about 10 p.m.,” Dung said.
“Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds,” Morning Star News says. “Nigeria remained among the most dangerous places on earth for Christians, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria.”
“In the country’s North-Central zone, where Christians are more common than they are in the North-East and North-West, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many hundreds, Christians above all, according to the report. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, are also active in the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities continue to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, according to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent years.”
Last March, gunmen kidnapped 227 children from a school in Kaduna State, which is just west of Plateau State.
Over 500 people were slaughtered in eastern Nigeria in December 2023 by marauding terrorists from neighboring Cameroon in central Africa.
